We were lucky enough to be invited down to The Jazz Cafe for a chat with Evidence before the last show of the Weather Or Not European Tour. After a quick lesson on how to hold the mic, and the promise of making it difficult… We got the newest member of the team and Evidence super-fan, Rudy, to conduct his first ever interview.
What’s up? It’s Rudy, UKHH.com. I’m here with none other than Evidence, Dilated Peoples, Rhymesayers. What’s up? We’re in London, you’re about to rock the Jazz Cafe.
Yes sir, I hope so…
It’s the last show of the tour, we’re pretty privileged to have it here in London, how was it? How did the tour go down?
Really Good. A lot of it was from a tour I was supposed to do last year. One of my first tours I cancelled, for personal reasons. I’ve been dealing with a lot of personal shit, so I really wanted to get back here and make good on it, you know? I was surprised by the amount of people that waited. It was a mad blessing to see that happen first hand. Most of them sold out, and then we did a whole week in France breaking in to new markets. Those were all really good shows, feeling like you building something new.
Have you noticed anything different from the crowds in Europe and the states?
I think a good show is a good show across the board. Like when you have your audience there and everyone is there to see you, and you got a lot of like minded people, the language barrier becomes the biggest thing, but a lot of them are still saying the words on queue, you know, which is super humbling. Thinking English is not their language and they’re still taking the time to learn it. Certain things i don’t expect as much, maybe talking between songs has been cut down a little bit, in France, me speaking English or in Poland, you know what I mean. I’ll cut that a little bit, but I think a good show is a good show. Maybe less cellphones in the air, is one thing i noticed.
Oh really?
Yeah more people in to the show than filming it, you know. LA or States, it feels like this is a prerequisite. I’m not mad at it, but yeah I saw less of that which was kind of tight.
I couldn’t help but notice it was almost all sold out from your Instagram posts and that.
Yeah, there was a couple that weren’t, but those were like Toulouse, and Strasbourg and like places i haven’t built up as a solo artist, even if I had been there with Dilated.
Now obviously you’ve got a massive fan base here in the UK, is there anyone from here you’d like to work with?
As far as UK artists, I’m still doing my homework. I don’t actively seek them out, you know its like when something is making waves, you’ll hear about it, so I’m usually a little bit late to the party. Can’t forget my man Da Flyy Hooligan… Hopefully Murkage, hopefully I can get a chorus, that would be fucking crazy. So yeah, those are the two right now probably.
So with the album, Weather or Not, many of the tracks you produced yourself…
I think I did about 3 or 4 of them.
Alongside Alchemist, Babu and various other producers, mad sick other artists rapping on it. How did the album come together, how long did that take?
The album probably took a couple of years. Like I was saying, been going through personal stuff, having a son, you know, my son losing his Mom to breast cancer, it was probably the most turbulent couple years I’ve ever had. So this album was a little tricky because I kept making music, but i wouldn’t gain momentum, I would stop. I think making music is a lot like maybe going to the gym or doing something where the repetition of doing it over and over is what leads you to the good product. So if you are in the gym and you’re bench pressing this much after working out for a long time, you can’t just take months off and expect to go back to bench and lift that much again. It was the reps and everything else that got you to that point. So that was the hard thing with this album, it kept fucking with me in a sense that I couldn’t gain momentum, and so what happened is it led to me making a lot of songs, like 30 instead of making 16 songs, and you hear 16. This was the first album where I had to like kill babies, and try to fit a puzzle together because I had so much time to make it. So it was confusing, but when it came together, I felt like I had the good stuff. Having friends like Alchemist and Babu like you mentioned is super important, because sometimes when you’re too close to the painting they’re stepping back looking at it, you know what I mean? So they were telling me like, no you got what you need, trust me, cut this one out, keep this one, helping me with the sequence, everything. It takes a team sometimes.
The albums been out for the best part of a year now, and it’s been greatly received, worldwide and stuff. Whats next on the agenda then? You taking some time off or…
No. I want to make another solo record right away, because I got a lot to talk about, got a lot to say. I did like 7 or 8 videos for this album, and touring Europe now feels like the completion. Like I’ve completed my vision for this album, so another record sooner than later would be my goal.
Lastly, Graffiti, I wanted to ask you about graffiti, I’ve seen loads of your posts, you got mad crazy handstyles.
Ha! Yeah old school handstyles, uh yeah, it’s part of my upbringing.
You painted?
Yeah I did a lot of graffiti, but, not as much anymore, but its still part of everything, you know, the way you do graff is the way you make a beat, it’s the same thing. A lot of symmetry and highlights, finalising and you know, making an idea come to fruition. So yeah, graffiti is important.
Fantastic man, thank you for everything you’ve done.
Thank you my man.
Glad that the albums gone so well, glad that you’ve had a good time, Europe is very happy, all the best for the future and safe travels home.
My man, appreciate you, You got an interview under your belt…
Massive shouts to Evidence for taking the time to talk with us, and putting on a dope show after weeks of back to back shows. Thanks to Rhymesayers, and Andy at Steaming Kettle PR.